Last November, OneCoin’s head of legal compliance pleaded guilty to charges related to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
The Southern District of New York announced that Irina Dilkinska was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to four years in prison for her role in the widespread OneCoin fraud scheme.
Dilkinska, who was OneCoin’s head of legal compliance, was arrested in Bulgaria in March 2023 and extradited to the United States.
Judicial Decisions
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Dilkinska participated in the day-to-day operations of OneCoin and laundered money for OneCoin without ensuring that his actions were in compliance with legal regulations. This included orchestrating the transfer of $110 million in fraudulently obtained OneCoin proceeds to an entity in the Cayman Islands.
Dilkinska pleaded guilty last November to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges related to her position at OneCoin.
Commenting on the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Irina Dilkinska’s participation in the massive OneCoin pyramid scheme was a flagrant violation of the law. Instead of upholding the law and fulfilling her responsibilities as a legal and compliance officer, she facilitated and enabled a money laundering operation that helped exploit millions of victims. As Dilkinska learned today, this office will hold every participant in the OneCoin scheme accountable, no matter where they hide.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Dilkinska, a 42-year-old Bulgarian citizen, was sentenced to one month of community supervision and instruction and ordered to forfeit $111.44 million.
OneCoin Event
OneCoin, launched in 2014 and based in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, promoted and traded the fraudulent cryptocurrency of the same name through a global multi-level marketing (MLM) strategy.
Due to misleading information about OneCoin, investors invested more than $4 billion in the fraudulent cryptocurrency. Dilinska previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Earlier this year, Mark Scott, a former partner at US law firm Locke Lord, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement in OneCoin. Scott was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud in November 2019.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos ordered the forfeiture of $392.94 million in Scott’s assets, including bank accounts, a yacht, two Porsches and four properties.
Meanwhile, Ruja Ignatova went missing following a tip-off about an escalating police investigation into OneCoin in October 2017. Interpol subsequently issued a red notice and Ignatova was added to Europol’s “most wanted list,” though it was later removed.
The FBI added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, announcing the move at a joint news conference with the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. #OneCoin #加密诈骗
